Bodies found in search for stranded group

At least 18 shellfish hunters died when they were trapped by fast-rising tides in treacherous Morecambe Bay in northern England, police said today.

Police reported seven others were rescued and the search was continuing.

The dead - 16 men and two women - were among a group of about two dozen, all believed to be Chinese nationals, who were cut off from the shore at Morecambe Bay in Lancashire on last night as they searched for cockles, a shellfish delicacy that lives just below the surface of muddy sand.

Geraldine Smith, the local member of Parliament, said the difficulty of regulating cockle-picking meant it was "a tragedy waiting to happen".

"The cockles which were on the beach were worth a great deal of money, but very tragically I would imagine that those poor people who lost their lives were making very little of that money, and were probably victims of exploitation," Smith told BBC radio.

The rescue was complicated by uncertainty over how many pickers were in the bay.

"We have received unconfirmed reports that some people in the group may have left the area without telling us so the problem is that we don't know how many people we are looking for," said Coastguard spokesman Martin Collins.

Collins said the police had brought in an interpreter to speak to those rescued to try to glean more information.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency earlier said 10 people were found safe during a rescue operation overnight. The agency later said the numbers had become confused because of the size of the operation and agreed that seven had been rescued.

It said that four were taken to the local police station and three to a nearby hospital with hypothermia.

Helicopters and lifeboats are being used in the search for those still missing. Land teams are also scouring the coastline near the bay.

Morecambe Bay is notoriously dangerous, known for its fast rising tides and quicksands.

A British man and his nine-year-old son drowned in the mudflats two years ago after becoming disoriented in fog and trapped by the rapidly incoming tide.

Police said the 10 bodies found today were on a sandbank in the northern part of the bay, several kilometres from Hest Bank where the group was reported missing.

"We believe the bodies were taken up to the bank when the tide came in and they were discovered as it went out," said Sergeant Nigel Ralphson of the Lancashire Constabulary.

In August last year, police arrested 37 Chinese people in the Chatsworth area of Morecambe after concerns were raised about the scale of cockle picking on the sands at Morecambe Bay.

Cockle picking is not illegal but locals complained that gangs from across Britain were flocking to Morecambe Bay, eager to get their hands on the lucrative shellfish, which are mostly sold abroad.